Boyer College 2021 Faculty News

by Boyer College
March 22
After almost a full academic year back on campus for in-person classes, we wanted to take a moment to recognize our faculty for their extraordinary achievements throughout 2021. Despite a virtual spring 2021 and select events remaining online-only, members of the full-time Boyer faculty continued to perform, present, publish and receive awards. Read Boyer College of Music and Dance 2021 Faculty News

Boyer College Mourns the Loss of Florence Brown Palmore

by Robert Stroker
February 28
Dear Boyer Community, It is with incredible sadness that I share with you that Florence Brown Palmore passed away on Saturday, February 26. We were informed two weeks ago that her health had been gradually improving. Since then, however, she became ill again and her condition declined very rapidly. Her family was with her at the end to provide her comfort and peace. More information about final arrangements will be shared as they are available. Until then, please keep Florence’s family in your thoughts.   Florence dedicated so much of her life to the students,...

Dr. Deborah Confredo Named President-Elect of NAfME National

by Boyer College
February 11
The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) announced the results of its 2022 elections. Dr. Deborah Confredo was named president-elect of NAfME National, a position she will start this year and hold until 2024. Dr. Confredo is a professor of music education and the director of online graduate programs in music education at the Boyer College. In addition to numerous published articles on music education, pedagogy and research, Confredo is an instrumental editor, arranger, author and consultant for the FJH Music Company. A 42-year veteran...

Boyer graduate receives a prestigious award for research on New Orleans and Philadelphia jazz

by Kiki Volkert
February 10
On Jan. 24, Fareed Simpson-Hankins, BYR ’19, ’21, premiered his video series, Second Line Bebop, on YouTube. Of the public’s positive reaction, he said, “I don’t think people were expecting it to be what it was, which is a good feeling for jazz musicians, as we don’t like to be predictable.” The video series highlights the cultural parallels between Philadelphia and New Orleans with a focus on jazz music. It was the culmination of research that Simpson-Hankins conducted with support from a $10,000 stipend granted through the Presser Graduate Music Award. Only graduate...

Network for New Music Celebrates Prof. Jan Krzywicki's 30th Anniversary as Conductor

by Boyer College
February 08
This month, Network for New Music presents its long-awaited Intersections program celebrating Professor Jan Krzywicki’s 30th anniversary as its conductor. The performances will take place Sunday, February 27 at 3:00pm (Settlement Music School, 416 Queen Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147) and Monday, February 28 at 7:30pm (Roberts Hall, Haverford College, 370 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, PA 19041). Learn more about the events: https://www.networkfornewmusic.org/20212022-season The program will include Krzywicki’s work Catching Light; the premiere...

Third Annual Keyboard Department Festival

by Boyer College
January 19
Boyer College of Music and Dance presents its Third Annual Keyboard Department Festival, January 28 - February 6, 2022. These events are free and open to the public. This year's Festival will feature faculty and students from the Department of Keyboard Studies in a series of recitals celebrating music by Iberian and Latinx composers. All performances will take place in Rock Hall Auditorium (1715 N. Broad) except for January 31, February 2 and February 6 as noted. Masks are required to attend, regardless of vaccination status. Festival Schedule Friday, January...

Rite of Swing Jazz Café Makes Philadelphia’s Top 12 Spots for Live Jazz

by Boyer College
January 12
With a nod to Temple’s jazz program, the Philadelphia Inquirer named the Rite of Swing Jazz Café one of the city’s top 12 spots for live jazz. Boyer alumnus Tim Brey, '12 calls the weekly event one of jazz’s “best kept secrets” in Philly, where community members can experience live jazz performances by guest artists, Boyer faculty and its students for no charge. The Rite of Swing takes place in the Temple Performing Arts Center lobby on Thursdays throughout the semester from 4:30-6:30 PM. Read the full article

Dr. Steven D. Zohn Named Winner of the 2022 Georg Philipp Telemann Award

by Boyer College
December 06
American musicologist and performer Steven D. Zohn will receive the Georg Philipp Telemann Award on March 27, 2022 at a ceremony in Magdeburg, Germany. The winner of the 2022 Telemann Award has been associated with Telemann’s birthplace Magdeburg for many years as an active participant in international scholarly conferences, as an editorial board member and editor of the Telemann edition and as a member of the executive committee of the International Telemann Society. Zohn’s writings on Telemann have appeared in leading journals and reference works. In addition...

Dr. Charles Abramovic is Nominated by Jacobs Music for Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame

by Boyer College
October 20
Dr. Charles Abramovic has been inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame, a prestigious designation recognizing the work of North America’s most committed and passionate piano educators. 2021 marks the second class of honorees, following the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 2019. Each teacher inducted into the Hall of Fame was nominated by a Steinway & Sons showroom in the teacher’s home region. The teachers’ names are now displayed on a commemorative display wall inside the iconic factory. Dr. Charles Abramovic is Nominated by Jacobs Music for...

In Memoriam: Dr. Kariamu Welsh

by Boyer College
October 19
Boyer College mourns the loss of Dr. Kariamu Welsh (1949-2021), who was a beloved professor of dance at Temple University for 30 years before retiring in 2019. Welsh notably created the Umfundalai technique (Kiswahili for "essence" or "essential"), which she described as “a contemporary African dance technique that comprises its movement vocabulary from dance traditions throughout the diaspora.” She was an author and editor of seminal works on Afrocentricity and Black movement traditions, including her well-known 1997 publication Umfundalai: An African Dance Technique....

Brandon McShaffrey wins The American Prize in Directing - The Charles Nelson Reilly Prize, college/university opera division, 2021

by Boyer College
October 14
Brandon McShaffrey, resident stage director at Temple University, is the winner of The American Prize in DIRECTING—The Charles Nelson Reilly Prize (college/university opera division—larger program), 2021, for L'elisir d'amore. Brandon was selected from applications reviewed recently from across the United States. The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts, David (Volosin) Katz, founder and chief judge, is the nation's most comprehensive series of non-profit competitions in the musical and theater arts, unique in scope and structure, designed...

Terell Stafford and the Temple University Jazz Band Honor the Legacy of Jimmy Heath on their Latest Release "Without You, No Me"

by Boyer College
September 10
Album Features Heavy Hitters Christian McBride and Joey DeFrancesco Available September 10 via BCM&D Records January 19, 2020, bears a bittersweet tinge in Terell Stafford’s memory. On one hand, Temple University’s Director of Jazz and Instrumental Studies recalls that day with a great deal of pride and celebration, as the Temple University Jazz Band took top honors in the inaugural Jack Rudin Jazz Championship at Jazz at Lincoln Center.  That same night, however, Stafford received the sad news that the legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath had died at the age of...

Recording Released of Guitar Compositions by Emiliano Pardo-Tristan

by Boyer College
July 30
Congratulations to Dr. Emiliano Pardo-Tristán on the recent release of "Sueños y Sones," a CD with his guitar compositions, performed by Marco Corrales, First Prize Winner of the Panama International Guitar Competition. The CD was presented at the University of Costa Rica in June.  Dr. Pardo-Tristán, adjunct professor at Boyer College of Music and Dance, will be giving the conference "Composing for the Classical Guitar" at the "Paracho Guitar Festival" in Mexico. He will also be part of the jury for the four categories in the Paracho Guitar Competition and...

No Strings Attached: Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project to Release Album of Percussion Music by Marc Mellits on BCM&D Records

by Boyer College
July 22
The second album by the chamber music consort from the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University draws from a pool of talent across the Philadelphia region.    New York, NY – August 10, 2021 – On August 20, BCM+D records will release No Strings Attached: Percussion Music by Marc Mellits from the Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project, recorded at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University. Anchored by the Boyer College’s Artistic Director of Percussion Phillip O’Banion, the rotating chamber ensemble seeks to underscore the variety and...

GRAMMY Museum Grant Program Funds Music Therapy Project

by Boyer College
June 28
The GRAMMY Museum today announced $20,000 in funding for a Music Therapy research project conducted by Professor Wendy Magee. Selected along with 11 other recipients, this project will test a new music-based measure for children with disorders of consciousness following brain injury. The study will test the reliability, validity and diagnostic capability of the Music therapy Sensory Instrument for Cognition, Consciousness and Awareness (MuSICCA), pediatric version of the Music therapy Assessment Tool for Awareness in Disorders Of Consciousness (MATADOC). This first...

In a Class of Her Own: Nicole Jordan, The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Principal Librarian

by Edirin Oputu
June 22
Nicole Jordan, BYR ’10, speaks three languages and is picking up two more. She knows the range of multiple musical instruments, what they can play and what they can’t. She can add bowing directions to sheet music for string players and fix awkward page turns. And she can analyze the structure and form of a piece of music, placing it in its historical and cultural context.  She is the Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal librarian and its first female Black member.  Jordan stepped into the world of librarianship almost by chance. In her final year studying...

WRTI's Hometown Heroes: Spotlight on Drummer Justin Faulkner

February 03
Jazz and community. Jazz and activism. Jazz and family. These aren't just words for West Philadelphia drummer, composer, and educator Justin Faulkner. They're life lines, ideas on which to act, interact and intercede, to work toward, play with, and pray for.Ask him for a motto to which he lives, and Faulkner quotes Psalm 1:3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,which yields its fruit in seasonand whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.Not yet 30, this West Philly native—a drummer who could rage and thunder, who could tickle and...

Boyer's Conwell Dance Theater wins Best Dance Studio Of The Decade

January 14
We are honored to have won Best Dance Studio Of The Decade in the 2020 BroadwayWorld Philadelphia Awards! We are also pleased to announce that Temple Theaters won Production Of A Play Of The Decade for their 2019 production of Men On Boats.Winners have been announced for the 2020 BroadwayWorld Philadelphia Awards - which were back bigger than ever, celebrating the best in local theatre of the past decade! The public submitted the nominees and voted for their favorites. Check out the results below! The 2020 BroadwayWorld Regional Awards are presented by TodayTix. Community...

Just 3 Weeks To Vote For The 2020 BroadwayWorld Philadelphia Awards!

December 10
There's just three short weeks left to vote for the BroadwayWorld Philadelphia Awards - which are back bigger than ever, celebrating the best in local theatre of the past decade! Check out the local nominees, cast your vote, and support live theatre entertainment in Philadelphia!The 2020 BroadwayWorld Regional Awards are presented by TodayTix.Community theatre productions, student productions, and college productions are all included! (Please check respective category rules.) Eligibility is for productions which opened between 2011 and September 30th, 2020.Voting will run...

Covid Sessions: A Social Call named WRTI's Jazz Album of the Week

November 23
November 23, 2020. Imagine deconstructing an award-winning 21-piece band, scattering its members not just across the Delaware Valley but the country, having each instrumentalist record his/her parts individually, and then taking each of those individually recorded parts and surgically stitching it all back together to make it sound like the entire band was recorded in the same place, at the same time.That's what John Harris and David Pasbrig, faculty in Temple's music technology program, were tasked with doing in order to make the latest from the Temple University Jazz Band,...